How Workers’ Compensation Affects Your Business
Accidents are inevitable! Just like road accidents, there are workplace accidents. Whether they are caused by machine entanglement, falling objects, reaction injuries or on the job violence, as an employer you are liable for your employees according to the law. Sadly, accidents can take a toll on your business directly or indirectly. There are worst scenarios where lawsuits from such cases can bankrupt your company. As an employer how you prepare and respond to workplace accidents determines its existence. Let’s look at how workers’ compensation can affect your business.
Accidents are inevitable! Just like road accidents, there are workplace accidents. Whether they are caused by machine entanglement, falling objects, reaction injuries or on the job violence, as an employer you are liable for your employees according to the law. Sadly, accidents can take a toll on your business directly or indirectly. There are worst scenarios where lawsuits from such cases can bankrupt your company. As an employer how you prepare and respond to workplace accidents determines its existence. Let’s look at how workers’ compensation can affect your business.
How a Workplace Accident can affect Your Business
Decreased productivity
For starters, workplace accidents can lead to loss of productivity because of the absence of the employee(s). Injuries caused by overexertion and falling objects can take a long time to recover. Having an employee(s) out for months affects your business. Handing over the affected employees’ work to his/her coworkers affects them negatively. It shifts their focus and eats on their time. You might be forced to hire new employees, which is also costly.
Hiring and training replacement workers
As an employer, you must know that this exercise is not cheap. It is even much worse when you lose more than one employee to workplace accidents. This means you will have to pay for entry wages, costs of employees/ company doing the training, off-site courses, etc. The time taken to hire a new employee on board also affects productivity and slows the business down.
Workers compensation claims
As an employer, worker’s compensation claims should be a major concern for you. Workers’ compensation rates are identified by the insurance company using the workers’ compensation class code. Although some states have no strict policy on this insurance, workers can still file for it if provided by the company. You will be expected to pay for hospital bills and transportation, missed wages, and temporary total disability payments, etc.
Personal injury settlement
The law allows employees to file for personal injury. The claim is common amongst employees who do not offer workers compensation insurance. Sadly, it is more comprehensive than the workers’ compensation and covers extra costs, including pain and suffering, past and future medical expenses, lost wages, and economic damages, etc.
Wrongful death expenses
This is another expense that you will incur in case of a workplace accident that leads to the death of an employee. The law allows the dependents of the victim to receive compensation for their loss. The claim includes reimbursement for benefits and wages lost, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and lost inheritance. If the accident affected more than one employee, then you might be forced to pay so much money.
Dealing with Workplace Accidents
As you can see, there are so many costs that come from workplace accidents. Sadly, these costs affect your business and can lead to closure. Here are steps to protect your business from workplace accidents:
Conduct due diligence
Always ensure that you are up to date with all the safety precautions required. Provide protection equipment, conduct pre-employment screening, and pay attention to safety concerns
Educate your employees.
Educated employees will help prevent common workplace accidents. Training allows them to understand the importance of following safety measures. Put in place or outsource a safety team that can educate them on preventing accidents plus the immediate steps to take when an accident occurs.
Hire a defense lawyer
As an employer, your sanity pill is having a lawyer who will help you deal with all the stress and legal issues that come with an accident.
What if you are an Employee Injured in the Workplace?
Injuries at the workplace not only affect the employers but employees as well. They lose their income, quality of life, and are burdened under piling medical expenses and bills. If you are an employee injured in the workplace, then you can hire a workplace injury lawyer to help process a claim against the employer. The lawyer will help fight for compensation from your employer to compensate for damages incurred from the incident including lost wages, medical bills, death, etc.
Final thoughts
While accidents are inevitable, your best shot as an employer depends on the steps put in place to mitigate and deal with the risks. Having a business lawyer is just one of the significant steps to take against workplace injury claims. That said, ensure you create a safe workplace to protect your employees and to avoid losing millions of money in lawsuits.